Way up a holler between a couple of prominent knobs, below Panther (pronounced "Painter") Knob, we're building a log cabin. Go to the archives and start at the bottom for a chronological story. Comments are welcome! This diary of a project may digress and venture into literature, life, and my reflections on any particular day.

We're at a brief stopping point now, regarding the cabin building (not life, which is pretty busy). It's raining and windy, so dropping trees doesn't seem very likely. Also, my wife, Sloan, teaches at the local University, and we're entering finals week. Watching Baby Angus and also Abel while she grades leaves few hands-free moments to do heavier work. I'll try to get out on the class 2 Tuckaseegee today just for a while, to rehab my shoulder in the hope of getting back out on some fun stuff soon. The Tuck is only four miles down the road, so anything's possible.

Next up on the cabin, maybe this week or maybe next: making saw dogs! With plenty of leftover locust, I'll use the chain saw and some lumber screws to fashion two, or maybe four, low sawhorse type things with notches on top, to keep logs from rolling off. These will come in handy as I debark all the logs that'll comprise our walls. It'll also be useful for hewing beams, if I decide to do that with an adze instead of picking them up at Ralph's cool, rustic sawmill down the valley. Nobody likes to work on the ground...

The locust sawdogs will make perfect legs for a nice bench later on, after we're done hewing and debarking logs.